A/N: I'd like to send a nice, big thank you to everyone who reviewed! Also, I edited the first 3 chapters: nothing major. You might not even notice the changes, so you don't need to go back and reread them if you don't want to. I just tidied up a few things - tied off some loose ends and clarified things I thought were confusing or contradictory. Here's chapter 4; I'm thinking I'll finish it off in one more chapter. Maybe two.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.


"Well, that wasn't quite how I imagined it going over," Sirius said lightly, still seated on his bed. Remus, who had been gawking down the stairs after Lily, flipped around at Sirius' words.

"What exactly did you expect when James found out his best mate was snogging the girl he's been practically in love with since first year?" Remus looked livid, his normally kind face flushed red. Sirius had never seen him look so angry, not even when Sirius' prank on Snape had nearly turned Remus into a murderer. Then, he had just looked terribly sad and James had been the furious one. "What on earth were you thinking, Sirius? You may have just single-handedly destroyed the Marauders."

Sirius was frozen, staring at Remus. The words stung, even though Sirius knew that he didn't fully understand the situation. When Sirius failed to respond, his mouth simply opening and closing silently, Remus huffed and walked over to his bed. He flopped down before pulling the curtains around, blocking Sirius from view.

"Moony?" Sirius said softly. There was a soft grunt from behind the curtain. "I promise I didn't betray James. I was trying to help."

"How the bloody hell does snogging Lily help him?" the still angry voice said. "I think she was just starting to fancy him back! Speaking of," a suspicious edge crept into his voice, "what did you do to Lily? The Lily Evans I know would never snog you. She's practically hated your guts since she first laid eyes on you, if Lily is even capable of hate. She wouldn't snog you willingly. Oh, no… You didn't use the Imperius, did you?" Remus' head peaked out from behind the curtain, looking at Sirius with wide, anxious eyes.

"Of course not ! I didn't do anything to her. I… well, I overheard her talking to you in the library today." The curtains were pulled back with a sharp snap, revealing the rest of Remus.

"You eavesdropped on us?"

"I wasn't eavesdropping! I had to get a book. How can I help it that you guys were talking fairly loudly at a table behind the bookshelf I was standing by?"

Remus scoffed. "And of course you had to stay and listen to the entire conversation once you had your book. Whatever. So you know that Lily's in love with James. And so you decide to snog her, knowing that it will likely ruin everything? Brilliant idea, Sirius."

"No, it was! Don't you see? Lily said she wouldn't tell James she fancied him, and you know he took that 'oath of platonic friendship' thingy at the start of the year, and he wouldn't give it up easily. I had to do something. We were just trying to make him jealous so he'd slip up and admit that he's still in love with her. We just… didn't expect him to be quite that upset."

Remus buried his head in his pillow and moaned. "Padfoot, you idiot." His words were muffled, but Sirius broke out in a grin at the use of his nickname. He'd been forgiven, by Remus at least. "Can you not go one day without meddling in someone else's business?"

Sirius, still grinning and not deigning to respond, stood up and dug around in his trunk for a minute, then stashed his loot in his schoolbag. "Where are you going?" Remus asked, sitting up.

"To meddle a little more." Sirius flashed a cocky grin at Remus before turning and walking down the stairs, escaping before Remus could object.


The corridor outside the Fat Lady's portrait was empty. Sirius looked it up and down for any sign of either James or Lily, but they had both vanished. He pulled the piece of parchment Lily had seen earlier from his bag, dug his wand out of his pocket, and tapped it, muttering a few words. He studied it for a few minutes, tapped it again, and shoved it back in his bag before walking off.

When Sirius reached the fifth floor corridor, he saw Lily at the far end, as he'd known she would be by the time he got there. She was walking, her back facing him. She paused and Sirius heard a door click open. She stuck her head into what Sirius assumed was an abandoned classroom. A second later, she pulled her head out, closed the door, and resumed walking.

"Evans!" Sirius called, his voice echoing creepily around the dark and empty corridor.

She jumped at his loud voice, and turned around as her hand flew to her wand. When she saw who it was, she relaxed and took a few steps back toward him, nervously tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "Hi."

Sirius choked back a laugh. After everything that had just happened, she said "Hi"? "Hey there," he said, feigning a casual attitude.

She sighed, interlocking her fingers and staring at her hands before diving in. "James hates me now. I know it. I've never seen him look at me like that before." Her face was unusually pale, glowing from the moonlight streaming through the windows.

"Relax, Evans. He was just jealous. We'll get this whole thing sorted; don't worry." His voice wavered a little, betraying his confident words. A part of Sirius wondered if his plan had maybe gone too far, after all. He, too, had never seen James wear an expression like that which covered his face before he left the dormitory. He'd seen a jealous James many a time back when Lily spent all her time with Snivellus. He'd even seen an enraged James after that stupid stunt with Snape and the Willow. Anger, Sirius could deal with. But the memory of the cold, dead look on his best friend's face made Sirius' gut clench with guilt and unease.

"What if he won't forgive me?" Lily asked quietly.

"He will. James couldn't stay mad at you if he tried. He loves you. Why else would he have left like that? What more proof do you need?"

"I don't know… What if he was just surprised? Or maybe he was mad at you and not me. I know I'd be mad if I caught Marlene kissing Amos Diggory behind my back, even though I broke up with him a year ago and think he's an utter prat now."

"Yes, James would probably tear my head off if he saw me right now. But I know James, and he doesn't run away from just anything. It takes a lot to make him that upset, and being angry at me for snogging his ex-crush wouldn't do it. If you still don't believe me, go talk to him yourself."

"What do you think I'm trying to do? I'm not just wandering around the castle in the middle of the night because I fancied a stroll. I can't find him anywhere!"

"I know how to find him. But you have to swear you won't tell a soul. Or confiscate it," Sirius said, looking slightly nauseated at the idea.

"That depends," she said, her eyes narrowing. "What is it?"

"Nothing dangerous, I swear. Here, look." Sirius pulled the parchment out of his bag. He hesitated a moment before starting to open it. Lily eyed the paper suspiciously, though she looked considerably calmer now that she knew it was only a piece of parchment and not some kind of explosive turnip or baby dragon. With Sirius, you never knew. "You promise to keep this a secret?" he asked.

Lily sighed. "I promise."

"Well then, I would like to introduce you to the Marauders' Map," he said grandly, flourishing the parchment and shoving his prior hesitance to the back of his mind. His friends were already mad at him; telling Lily about their secret couldn't make things much worse, assuming she wouldn't tattle.

"The what?" she said. Sirius smirked at the confusion in her voice.

"Marauders Map," he reiterated with a cocky grin. "James, Remus, Peter, and I invented it."

"And what exactly does it do? It's nothing but a piece of parchment."

"That is what you think, my dear Lily. But you are forgetting a certain something called magic." He flipped his long hair out of his eyes and pulled out his wand. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he said, tapping the parchment for the fifth time that night.

"And of course that's your password," Lily said, her grudging tone slightly marred by a hint of curiosity as she hurried over to Sirius' side. She peered over his shoulder at the map, squinting to see by the light of the moon.

"Is that… is that Hogwarts?"

"Indeed. But that is not all, young Lily. Get a better look." She inched even closer to Sirius, until her arm was brushing against his. A small thought in the back of Lily's mind whispered that only a day ago, Lily would have been immensely uncomfortable at standing in such close proximity to Sirius Black. A snog-fest on a boy's bed does tend to bring down the barriers between people, Lily thought, stifling a snort.

She stared at the map. It was covered with words: that much she could see. She struggled to make out exactly what was written, and it wasn't until she saw the familiar lines of her own name that she understood. "That… that can't be."

"Oh, but it is."

"You created a map that shows everyone at Hogwarts?" she said, her voice painted slightly hysteric in shock.

"Don't sound so surprised, Evans. You already know that James, Remus, and I aren't exactly dim. It took a while to figure out, but we knew that it would be more than worth it. It's how we manage to avoid getting caught doing the majority of our pranks – all we have to do is look at the map, and we have advanced warning when anyone's coming along. It's also rather helpful when it comes to finding people who don't want to be found. I don't know why James even bothered; he knows that I had the map today. As if I'd let him hide for long."

"We can use this map to find James?"

"Keep up, Evans," Sirius said, shaking his head in mock disappointment. "Of course we can. I believe that I just made that abundantly clear. And I thought you were one of the brightest witches in the school."

"I'm still a little… rattled, I guess. It's not every day that you confess your feelings for the person you've professed to hate for years, snog his best friend, and watch him storm off when he sees you snogging said best friend."

"Thank goodness. I don't think I could deal with this much drama every day." Lily stared at him in shock.

"Sirius, you commonly cause this much drama on a daily basis. If not dramatic, what do you call your stunt with the talking food in the Great Hall last week? Every time anyone tried to tuck into their breakfast, the eggs would start screaming 'No! I'm too young to die!' while the cereal was singing some annoying song about itself. It got to be so chaotic that a first year started crying… How is that not drama?"

"That was simply entertainment. There is a wide barrier between entertainment and drama. Now, I think you're forgetting the point of our little midnight rendezvous. You're looking for James, remember?"

"Right. Sorry. I'm just really nervous. So, how do we find him on this thing? It's huge."

"He's there," Sirius said, pointing to a spot on the map after scanning it for a brief moment.

"How on earth did you find him so fast?"

"Practice. Now go! You better take the map with you so you don't get caught. Though it would be interesting to hear what people would say if they found out that perfect little Head Girl Lily Evans was caught out after curfew." Lily rolled her eyes before grabbing the map. She squared her shoulders and took a deep, shaky breath.

"Lily, you're going to talk to James, not the Giant Squid. You two have been friends for months now. Why are you so freaked out about this?"

"I don't do confrontation well," she muttered. "And I'm afraid that he'll hate me after this. What if I did ruin our friendship, after all?"

"You can't go back in time and change it, unless you have a time-turner stashed somewhere on your person, so there's no sense on dwelling on what's been done. Go explain it to him. He won't be mad, and if he is, I give you permission to blame me, okay?"

Lily nodded, though she didn't look very comforted by the promise. "Okay. Thanks for your help, Sirius. Even if it does end badly. I guess I'll see you tomorrow at breakfast."

"Yeah," Sirius said. "You'll see me then." Lily took a deep breath and turned around before disappearing down the corridor.


Well, there's that. I hope you liked it! Please, please review. A review is like an explosion of sunshine and rainbows on a cloudy day, and constructive criticism is always welcome!

For a James/Lily fic, so far there has been surprisingly little interaction between the two of them. And pretty much a lack of James entirely. But don't worry; there will be plenty of James in the next one.